Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry
Speaker 1: of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in a series
Speaker 1: called Transformed. In these lessons, Rick uncovers key principles found
Speaker 1: in God's.
Speaker 2: Word that will completely.
Speaker 1: Transform our lives from the inside out in every area
Speaker 1: including spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial, and vocational. Now,
Speaker 1: before we get started, we want to let you know
Speaker 1: that a very generous friend has given one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars matching grant to Daily Hope. That means that all
Speaker 1: this month, every dollar you give to help Daily Hope
Speaker 1: share the hope of Jesus around the world will be
Speaker 1: matched up to one hundred thousand dollars. You can find
Speaker 1: out more by going to Pastorick dot com or by
Speaker 1: texting the word Daily to eight hundred six hundred five
Speaker 1: thousand and four. That's Pastor Rick, or the word Daily
Speaker 1: to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Right now,
Speaker 1: here's Pastor Rick Warren with part two of a message
Speaker 1: called setting Personal Goals by Faith.
Speaker 3: Number three goals focus my energy. Another one of the
Speaker 3: reasons why you need to set goals in every air
Speaker 3: of your life is they focus your energy. They keep
Speaker 3: you from wasting time, money, reputation, energy. They keep you focused.
Speaker 3: Selection is the name of the game. Focus is the
Speaker 3: key to an effective life. It's not these fifty things
Speaker 3: I dabble in. It's this one thing I do. And
Speaker 3: the more you focus your life, the more powerful, the
Speaker 3: more effective your life is gonna be. If you spread
Speaker 3: it out and diffuse your life over a whole bunch
Speaker 3: of different things, you'll make no impact at all. But
Speaker 3: if you focus your life, it's gonna be powerful. It's
Speaker 3: gonna be strong, and it will change the world. Light
Speaker 3: diffused has no power at all, but when you focus light,
Speaker 3: it has enormous power. The sun doesn't set things on
Speaker 3: fire just because it's diffused.
Speaker 2: But I remember when I was a kid.
Speaker 3: If you take a magnifying glass, you can set grass
Speaker 3: on fire, or you can burn little bugs. I'm sure
Speaker 3: all you girls did that right. And you focus the light,
Speaker 3: it can actually start a fire. If you focus light
Speaker 3: even more, it becomes a laser. And a laser can
Speaker 3: cut through steel, and a laser can kill a cancer.
Speaker 3: I want you to live a laser life. A focused
Speaker 3: life goals focused by energy. Now the world is full
Speaker 3: of distractions. Everybody agree with that. Everybody agree that there
Speaker 3: are a lot of things to distract you. You can
Speaker 3: spend your life, you can waste your life, or you
Speaker 3: can invest your life. And the greatest use of life
Speaker 3: is to invest it in that which is going to
Speaker 3: outlast it. Now, you don't have time to do everything.
Speaker 3: You figure that one out already. You don't have time
Speaker 3: to do everything. Here's the good news. God doesn't expect
Speaker 3: you to do everything. Not everything's worth doing. And there
Speaker 3: are only a few things that are really worth doing.
Speaker 3: And the key to being effective in life as a
Speaker 3: woman of God, as a man of God, is to
Speaker 3: do what matters most and forget everything else. Goals focus
Speaker 3: my life. Paul says this in One Corinthians nine twenty six.
Speaker 3: I do not run without a goal. I fight like
Speaker 3: a boxer who is hitting something, not just the air.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 3: I'm not playing around here. I'm not playing air guitar.
Speaker 3: I'm not just pretending I'm boxing.
Speaker 2: He goes.
Speaker 3: When I box, I fight to win. When I run
Speaker 3: a race, I run to win. He said, I'm not
Speaker 3: just messing around here with my life. It's too important.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do something with my life. I'm gonna win.
Speaker 3: I want my life to bring honor and glory to God.
Speaker 3: I don't run without a goal. Some of you are
Speaker 3: running without a goal. As a result, you're just running
Speaker 3: in circles and you're caught up in the rat race.
Speaker 3: You don't want to run the rat race, because then
Speaker 3: even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat.
Speaker 3: Number four goals don't their statements of faith. Goals focus
Speaker 3: my energy. Number four goals keep me going. They give
Speaker 3: me hope to keep moving. They give me hope to endure.
Speaker 3: They give me hope to persist. You've heard me say
Speaker 3: this many times. When you're going through hell, what do
Speaker 3: you do? You keep going. You don't want to make
Speaker 3: a home in hell. You don't want to stay there
Speaker 3: and camp out overnight. When you're going through hell. You
Speaker 3: just keep on going. And the way you do that
Speaker 3: is you have a goal beyond. The Bible says Jesus
Speaker 3: endured the cross because he looked forward to the goal
Speaker 3: and the glory that was set before him.
Speaker 2: He looked beyond the pain to the payoff. You need
Speaker 2: to do this too.
Speaker 3: The Bible says that God wants to make you have hope.
Speaker 3: You see if you don't have a goal in your life,
Speaker 3: any goals in your life, you don't really have any
Speaker 3: reason to get out of.
Speaker 2: Bed in the morning.
Speaker 3: That maybe you got to eat, but really, what's why
Speaker 3: even why even why why even get out of bed?
Speaker 3: Why even live? If you don't have any goal for
Speaker 3: your life. Job says this in Job chapter six, verse eleven.
Speaker 3: I do not have the strength to endure. You ever
Speaker 3: felt like that? I just I don't know if I'm
Speaker 3: going to make it. I don't have a strength endure
Speaker 3: why next sentence, I do not have a goal that
Speaker 3: encourages me to carry on. You got to have a
Speaker 3: goal to keep you going. You know, they did a
Speaker 3: study once of the Holocaust survivors. And in World War two,
Speaker 3: you know, the Nazis killed six million Jews and many
Speaker 3: others besides yous, many Christians, Muslims, others other that they
Speaker 3: just didn't lie. And they studied those who survived the Holocaust,
Speaker 3: survived those terrible tragedies, and they discovered only one thing
Speaker 3: in common with all these people.
Speaker 2: Every one of.
Speaker 3: Them had something to look forward to. Every one of
Speaker 3: them had something waiting for them. Every one of them
Speaker 3: had something that they wanted to live for, they.
Speaker 2: Had a goal.
Speaker 3: Those who didn't have anything to live for, those who
Speaker 3: didn't have anything to look forward to, those who didn't
Speaker 3: have any goal out there, they lost hope and they
Speaker 3: simply gave up the will to live, and then they died.
Speaker 3: The second year of this church, when I was twenty
Speaker 3: six years old and pastoring.
Speaker 2: It was what I call my dark year.
Speaker 3: And I was depressed the entire year and I could
Speaker 3: barely put one foot in front of the others.
Speaker 2: And I later.
Speaker 3: Went to a doctor and got some nutritional advice and
Speaker 3: I went out, but it took a full year before
Speaker 3: I actually felt better. I was just always tired, and
Speaker 3: it was always depressed, and I was just always fearful.
Speaker 3: And you know, at that time, I wasn't thinking, God
Speaker 3: build a great church. I was thinking, can I just
Speaker 3: get through today? And I look back now and I'm
Speaker 3: grateful that I didn't give up that year, But I'm
Speaker 3: also more grateful that God didn't give up on me.
Speaker 3: And what kept me going full of through a full
Speaker 3: one year of depression.
Speaker 2: I had a goal.
Speaker 3: I had made a commitment to pastor this church for
Speaker 3: forty years, and so I held on to that even
Speaker 3: though every bone in my body wanted to give up.
Speaker 3: Do you want to know how often I felt like
Speaker 3: giving up as pastor of Saddle Backed Church? How'm often
Speaker 3: I felt like resigning? Just every Monday morning I get
Speaker 3: PMS post message syndrome. And after you've preached five or
Speaker 3: six or seven times and you're all emotionally spent, you
Speaker 3: get up the next day and you think, Man, somebody
Speaker 3: could have done a better job than that. God, I'm
Speaker 3: not that smart. You got to find somebody who can. Really,
Speaker 3: this church is too big for me. Get somebody else.
Speaker 3: Get somebody's brilliant to do this. But you just keep
Speaker 3: on keeping on white because you have a goal. You see,
Speaker 3: when you have a long term goal, long term goals
Speaker 3: keep you from being discouraged with short term setbacks. Everybody
Speaker 3: has setbacks, everybody blows it, everybody makes mistakes, everybody has failure.
Speaker 3: In fact, failure is the only way you succeed.
Speaker 2: You cannot succeed in life without failing. Why.
Speaker 3: That's why you learn what works and what doesn't work.
Speaker 3: So never called a failure, call it an education. Some
Speaker 3: of us are highly educated. We're good at failing. Now,
Speaker 3: if there's any piece of as your friend, I could
Speaker 3: say this to you. It's this learn to fail fast, okay,
Speaker 3: because you're going to fail.
Speaker 2: You're going to fail. So everybody fails. I fail all
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 3: You know what The key to Saddleback's growth, in our
Speaker 3: strength and our success is we fail fast and then
Speaker 3: we learn from it.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
Speaker 1: We've got some incredible news to share with you. A
Speaker 1: very generous friend has given a one hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: matching grant to this ministry all this month. Every dollar
Speaker 1: you give to help Daily Hope share the certain hope
Speaker 1: of Jesus around the world will be matched up to
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars, So twenty five dollars becomes fifty dollars,
Speaker 1: fifty becomes one hundred and five hundred becomes a thousand.
Speaker 1: Whatever you give will be doubled by the matching grant
Speaker 1: up to one hundred thousand dollars, but only till midnight
Speaker 1: to sm thirty first, So please contact us today. Go
Speaker 1: to Pastorick dot com or just call eight hundred six
Speaker 1: hundred five thousand and four if.
Speaker 4: You want to make your time in prayer the best
Speaker 4: it can be. Then you're going to want to get
Speaker 4: a copy of the brand new twenty twenty one Daily
Speaker 4: Hope Prayer Journal. This year's theme, God's Great Adventure for You,
Speaker 4: will help you tap into God's power and presence when
Speaker 4: you learn how to pray with passion and purpose. Covered
Speaker 4: in soft vegan leather with full color pages, this prayer
Speaker 4: journal has sections to pray for specific people and situations,
Speaker 4: as well as space to express your gratitude and personal
Speaker 4: prayer requests to God. Each page is beautifully designed and
Speaker 4: filled with inspiring Bible verses, photos and artwork. The God's
Speaker 4: Great Adventure for You Prayer Journal is a spiritual growth
Speaker 4: tool designed to help you enjoy a vibrant prayer life,
Speaker 4: connect with God, and establish constant daily prayer time. When
Speaker 4: you give a gift to help daily hope take the
Speaker 4: certain hope of Jesus to people around the world, we'll
Speaker 4: send you the all new twenty twenty one Daily Hope
Speaker 4: Prayer Journal to say thanks. Quantities are limited, so don't wait.
Speaker 4: Call eight hundred at six hundred five zero zero four
Speaker 4: to get your Prayer Journal and have your gift matched
Speaker 4: up to one hundred thousand dollars or you can visit
Speaker 4: pastorick dot com that's eight hundred at six hundred five
Speaker 4: zero zero four or pastororick dot.
Speaker 1: Com once again, here's Rick.
Speaker 3: You know what the key to Saddleback's growth, in our
Speaker 3: strength and our success is we fail fast and then
Speaker 3: we learn from it.
Speaker 2: We don't waste our failures.
Speaker 3: We try something that doesn't work, we try something that
Speaker 3: doesn't work, We try something else that don't work.
Speaker 2: We try something else that don't work.
Speaker 3: We do ninety nine things that don't work. Then number
Speaker 3: one hundred works, and then we teach a seminar to
Speaker 3: other pastors and partik like we knew what we were doing,
Speaker 3: but we're not that smart.
Speaker 2: It's just trial and error.
Speaker 3: Goals keep me going, and long term goals keep me
Speaker 3: from being discouraged about short term setbacks. Now, a goal
Speaker 3: doesn't have to be big to motivate you. For instance,
Speaker 3: if you had to go to the hospital and have
Speaker 3: surgery for some reason, your first goal would simply be
Speaker 3: after surgery, can I sit up in bed? Not a
Speaker 3: very big goal, but an important one, And the second
Speaker 3: goal would can I hang my feet over the side
Speaker 3: of the bed and sit up? And then the next
Speaker 3: goal would can I get enough strength to stand up
Speaker 3: after surgery? And then a very important goal, can I
Speaker 3: have enough strength to go to the bathroom by myself?
Speaker 2: Big goal?
Speaker 3: Then next us do I have enough strength to walk
Speaker 3: around this wing of the hospital. All of those are
Speaker 3: very small goals, but they're all important goals because when
Speaker 3: to get from here to success isn't one big leap,
Speaker 3: it's many small steps, many small steps. So goal that
Speaker 3: have to be big for it to be important. It's
Speaker 3: getting you on the way. Like my goal today is
Speaker 3: to get out of bed and to eat healthy. I
Speaker 3: have a healthy breakfast. Fine, that's a good goal. As
Speaker 3: job said, I have to have a goal to encourage
Speaker 3: me to carry on. Now, you may have come this
Speaker 3: weekend and you're a little discouraged. Maybe you're feeling a
Speaker 3: little down. Maybe you're feeling you got the blues. You're down,
Speaker 3: down down, Dobie Doo down down, and everybody hates me,
Speaker 3: nobody loves me. I'm never gonna get married. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go eat worms play the song for you here. If
Speaker 3: you're discouraged this weekend, you need to set some new goals.
Speaker 2: And that's what we're gonna to do.
Speaker 3: In the next fifty days, you need to set some
Speaker 3: new goals in these different areas. Goal setting is a
Speaker 3: spiritual responsibility. It's a statement of faith. It focuses my energy,
Speaker 3: It keeps me going. Number five, the Bible says, goals
Speaker 3: build my character.
Speaker 2: Goals build my character.
Speaker 3: Drifting doesn't build your character, but goals build your character.
Speaker 3: And if you set a goal and you get a vision.
Speaker 3: Without a vision, the Bible says that people perish. If
Speaker 3: you get a vision, you get a goal, then God
Speaker 3: says I.
Speaker 2: Can work in you. Now, listen very carefully what I'm
Speaker 2: about to say.
Speaker 3: The greatest benefit to your life over the goals you're
Speaker 3: going to set in the next fifty days. The biggest
Speaker 3: benefit to your life is not going to be the
Speaker 3: accomplishments and achievements you acquire because of those goals, but
Speaker 3: what happens inside you.
Speaker 2: While you're moving toward the goal.
Speaker 3: See, God is more interested in your character than he
Speaker 3: is in your accomplishments. You're not taking your success to heaven,
Speaker 3: You're not taking your career to heaven, but you are
Speaker 3: taking your character.
Speaker 2: So God is.
Speaker 3: More interested in who you are and what you become
Speaker 3: than he is in what you do and accomplish, and
Speaker 3: what you succeed at, God's interested in you.
Speaker 2: So here's the idea.
Speaker 3: While I'm working on the goal, God is working on me.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
Speaker 3: And that's what God wants to do in your life.
Speaker 3: Goals help build your character and that's what's going to
Speaker 3: last eternity. That's why Paul says in Philippians chapter three,
Speaker 3: verse twelve, I keep striving toward the goal circle. The
Speaker 3: word striving, that means it takes energy, it takes effort,
Speaker 3: it takes intention, it takes purpose in order to reach
Speaker 3: your goal. And God says that while you're doing that,
Speaker 3: while you're working on the goal, God is building character
Speaker 3: in you. You will never become the man God intends
Speaker 3: you to be unless you intend to become that man.
Speaker 3: You will never be the woman God intends for you
Speaker 3: to be unless you intend to be that person. Ten
Speaker 3: years from today, some of you you're not going to
Speaker 3: be in church. You're going to be a long way
Speaker 3: away from God. You're going to go through a failed marriage,
Speaker 3: You're gonna have all kinds of problems in your life.
Speaker 3: Why because you never intended to be a man of God.
Speaker 3: You never intended to be a woman of God. It
Speaker 3: was just kind of a casual Christianity.
Speaker 2: Yeah maybe this, Yeah, maybe that. And you never intended.
Speaker 3: You'll never become what God intends without you being intentional
Speaker 3: goals build my character. Then number six, good goals will
Speaker 3: be rewarded. Good goals will be rewarded. And if you
Speaker 3: have good goals, then there's going to be two reasons
Speaker 3: that you're rewarded. You're going to be rewarded on earth
Speaker 3: by people, and you're going to be rewarded by God
Speaker 3: in heaven. When you have a good goal, it brings respect.
Speaker 3: When you have a good goal, it brings honor when
Speaker 3: you give your life to a good goal. It builds
Speaker 3: a legacy on earth. The Bible says in Proverbs eleven
Speaker 3: twenty seven, let's read this verse aloud together.
Speaker 2: Okay, read it with me.
Speaker 3: If your goals are good, you will be respected. Circle
Speaker 3: that you will be respected. You want to be respected,
Speaker 3: then you need to set some goals that are good.
Speaker 3: The entire nation will celebrate Martin Luther King Day. Why
Speaker 3: why do we take a holiday for one guy? Because
Speaker 3: he was a man who set good goals and he
Speaker 3: didn't live for himself. He lived to fight injustice and
Speaker 3: to fight prejudice, and to fight racism, and to fight
Speaker 3: for truth. He set good goals for his life, and
Speaker 3: so he is honored with a holiday. One of the
Speaker 3: greatest honors I've ever been given in my entire life
Speaker 3: was the honor of preaching in Martin Luther King's home
Speaker 3: church on the fortieth anniversary of his death.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's daily Hope. In just a moment,
Speaker 1: Rick is going to tell you about a recent one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars matching grant from a very generous listener.
Speaker 1: But first he's going to share with us how God
Speaker 1: has been using your financial gifts to help us share
Speaker 1: Christ with people around the world world.
Speaker 3: Here's Rick, Hi, friends, would it surprise you to know
Speaker 3: that there are entire groups of people who have never
Speaker 3: heard about Jesus still in our world today. I'm talking
Speaker 3: about the small tribes of less than a one hundred
Speaker 3: thousand people in many, many distant places who have never
Speaker 3: heard the name of Jesus Christ. That means there's not
Speaker 3: a single Christian among them. There is no church, they
Speaker 3: have no Bible, there is no believer. Can you imagine that?
Speaker 3: Would you help me reach these unreached, unengaged people. You know,
Speaker 3: one of the reasons I started Daily Hope was to
Speaker 3: find partners who would help us take the hope of
Speaker 3: the good news of the Gospel to the whole world,
Speaker 3: to the final frontier these unreached, unengaged tribes. Jesus wants
Speaker 3: us to witness to all nations and to all people.
Speaker 3: He never made a person he did in love. He
Speaker 3: never made a person he didn't want saved. And Jesus
Speaker 3: died so that all may be saved. But people can't
Speaker 3: follow you, Jesus. If they've never heard about him, and
Speaker 3: they've never heard of God's grace, how can they receive it?
Speaker 3: So I'm asking you to help me in this finishing
Speaker 3: the task project. Thank you for your support.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Daily Hope is now reaching over thirty four million people
Speaker 3: each month through Daily Hope audio teachings and our email devotionals.
Speaker 3: But we're only able to do this because of your
Speaker 3: partnership with Daily Hope. We're working together to help us
Speaker 3: fulfill the great commission. Imagine when you get to heaven,
Speaker 3: somebody comes up to you and says, I just want
Speaker 3: to thank you. I'm here because you cared enough for
Speaker 3: someone like me. You prayed and you gave, and you shared,
Speaker 3: and you sacrificed, and I'm in heaven because of you.
Speaker 2: Will that be worth it?
Speaker 3: Even as we rejoice in the success, we need to
Speaker 3: remember that there's still billions of people who need to
Speaker 3: know Jesus and we got to keep going. So I'm
Speaker 3: asking you prayerfully to consider giving the biggest gift you've
Speaker 3: ever given, or that you can can give before the
Speaker 3: end of this year. As I said, there is still
Speaker 3: about three thousand unreached people groups that have either few
Speaker 3: or no believers in them. We've been able to reach
Speaker 3: about six hundred of those tribes, making sure there's a
Speaker 3: Christian living among them who speaks their language and can
Speaker 3: help them understand the Bible. But that's just the first step.
Speaker 3: The truth is an unreached people group isn't considered reached
Speaker 3: until it has a healthy church, a body of Christ
Speaker 3: that's able to plant new churches within that group. So
Speaker 3: to help that happen, we're working on translating spiritual growth
Speaker 3: tools into about two hundred new languages for people who
Speaker 3: have virtually no Christian resources available. Think of all the
Speaker 3: Christian books you could buy at Christmas this year. Think
Speaker 3: of all the books you could pass on at birthdays.
Speaker 3: These are so available in English, but we need to
Speaker 3: translate them in all the other languages. These translations are
Speaker 3: strategic that we've selected once to share the gospel and
Speaker 3: to help disciple new believers where it is most needed
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: These resources are also going to help young pastors grow
Speaker 3: and train others to build the church in their nations
Speaker 3: and in their groups. Now, we've made a lot of
Speaker 3: good progress, but we've got a lot of work ahead
Speaker 3: of us in this task. And it is a monumental vision.
Speaker 3: I can't do this by myself. I need your help.
Speaker 3: It's a timely vision, it's a global vision, but every
Speaker 3: vision listen requires provision. Honestly, we wouldn't be able to
Speaker 3: do any of this vision without you, and that's why
Speaker 3: I cannot fully express how much I appreciate your financial
Speaker 3: support of Daily Hope. You know I don't take a
Speaker 3: salary in this. This is all a ministry of love
Speaker 3: and all of these funds are going to help reach
Speaker 3: more people.
Speaker 2: Now, let me give you some exciting news.
Speaker 3: A generous friend of Daily Hope has offered a one
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars matching grant, so that any gift you
Speaker 3: give by December thirty first this year will be doubled
Speaker 3: up to one hundred thousand dollars. That means every dollar
Speaker 3: you give the Daily Hope between now and the end
Speaker 3: of the year will be doubled. Would you please prayerfully
Speaker 3: consider how you can give today, how you can reach
Speaker 3: more people for Jesus in the coming year.
Speaker 2: And please, while you're at.
Speaker 3: It, pray that I will faithfully teach God's word in
Speaker 3: a way that will penetrate hearts. Pray for our Daily
Speaker 3: Hope team as they coordinate our outreach, and most of all,
Speaker 3: pray for the people we're trying to reach that their
Speaker 3: hearts will be prepared to hear the message of the
Speaker 3: good News of Christ, and that they will come to
Speaker 3: know the grace of God and grow and mature in
Speaker 3: their Christian faith. You have a part of the most
Speaker 3: important task in history.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: My prayer for you is a God's gonna bless you
Speaker 3: throughout this coming year, and that He will bless you
Speaker 3: so much that you can be a blessing to others.
Speaker 3: You know, we're blessed to be a blessing, and my
Speaker 3: prayers that He will draw you closer and closer to Him.
Speaker 2: God bless you.
Speaker 1: Remember, as Rick just shared, whatever you give today will
Speaker 1: be doubled by the matching grant up to one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, but only till midnight, December thirty first. Anything
Speaker 1: not matched will be lost, So please contact us today
Speaker 1: call eight hundred six hundred five thousand four or go
Speaker 1: to Pastorick dot com that's eight hundred six hundred five
Speaker 1: thousand four or pastorick dot com. Be sure to join
Speaker 1: us again next time as we look into God's word
Speaker 1: for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support